I was watching The Matrix yesterday and came to the scene where Neo is being lectured by his sexually frustrated middle manager, who was clearly given a corner office because he had to be the guy who scolded programmers for not conforming to asinine company policy.
This reminded me of an article I just read in a daily e-newsletter called The Business Record, which is published for the Des Moines, Iowa community. While you should read the article, I will quote some material from it to illuminate the disconnect between Gen-y and the previous generations.
“When I ask the seniors in my career seminar class what they want in a new job, they often respond that they want to have “fun” and to work with “nice people.” They are looking for another childhood experience instead of adapting to the demanding world of business.”
Oh Dear, having fun and finding nice people to work with. Now those are some high expectations right there. What have I told you about having expectations? What I found is that the past generation (gen x) accepts being treated like shit, and even feels grateful for having the opportunity to be taken advantage of. Don’t get upset at us for having higher boundaries than you.
The author of this article, Stephen Winzenburg, is delusional if he thinks the world of business is demanding. I spend an average of 1 hour a day working. This isn’t because I’m lazy, or expect others to do my work. There are no others to do my work, I’m the only programmer at my workplace. It’s because I’m poorly managed, and I’ve been poorly managed by several companies since I’ve gotten out of college. Even with my first employer, a ginormous company who’s name starts with Northwestern and ends with Mutual, I generally wasted most of my day away talking or browsing the internet. Even then, i was considered a great employee and was very productive. At first I thought I was special, which was reinforced by all those “I am special” classes that we were forced to take in elementry school, but then a study was published that most American business workers only work an average of 3 days a week, regardless how many hours they spend at work. But that is a topic for a different post.
Clearly, with all of Stephen’s comments deducing that our generation is trying to relive our “childhood experiences” he must be a psychologist. No, he’s a communications professor at a small christian college in Iowa.
To quote Stephen again: “Instead they should learn from the original Greatest Generation that the path to true workplace satisfaction includes self-discipline, sacrifice and responsibility, and that hard work will eventually bring its own reward.”
I’d like to remind Stephen that the “Greatest Generation” was practically retired by the time us Gen-yers were born. They never were exposed to the same work environment that we are currently today dealing with. They also weren’t laid off in droves like our parents were after being so-called lifetime employees. We learned that lesson for our parents, that dedication and loyalty is not returned from an entity who’s sole responsibility is to the bottom line and the pocket books of the share holders.
For someone to make sweeping statements about our generation based off of his tiny ass class size, and a couple of cheaters is a bit silly. But he is right about one thing, that we are entitled to something better than our parents.